Girl recovers from auto-pedestrian accident

Eden Brownlee, 15, glances away from her broken legs as she lays her bed Thursday night at her home in west Greeley. Eden was hit by a car while crossing a street near her home earlier this month, she suffered a massive concussion, a broken collarbone and multiple breaks in both legs.

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Earl Brownlee calls the diagrammed stick figure in his notebook the “roadmap” to his daughter’s injuries.

Brownlee may be lighthearted about it now, but just three weeks ago the self-employed, single father of five thought he had swallowed his heart when two Greeley police officers pulled up in his yard and confirmed his worst fears.

“At that time there was a sense of dread,” he said. “They showed me a cell phone and asked if it belonged to my daughter,” he said. “… It was my cell phone. Eden had taken it with her.”

The officers then told Brownlee his oldest daughter was on her way to the hospital, having been hit by a car as she walked across 4th Street at 51st Avenue.

Robin Sweigard , 52, of Greeley ran the red light in front of Christa McAuliffe Elementary School and hit Eden at an estimated speed of 45 to 50 mph, without slowing, Brownlee said. Eden was thrown over the car and landed on the pavement 15 feet to the north.

Sweigard told police the setting sun was in her eyes and she didn’t see the light or the girl as she went through the intersection. She was cited for careless driving resulting in an injury.

The word injury can’t be taken lightly, however, in Eden’s case. Her roadmap includes: a broken right collarbone, a broken 5th Lumbar in her lower back, three fractures to her pelvic bone, a broken pubis bone, a break in her right femur that extends down into her knee, extensive soft tissue damage to the ligaments around her knee and complete ruptures of her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament, a compound fracture to her right tibia and damage to her calf muscle, a near 90 degree break to the lower end of her left fibula, a deep bruise to her right lung and a concussion.

Everything about that night, Brownlee said, was in God’s hands. Eden, who is a twin to brother Jordan , generally spends an hour or so each evening swinging and listening to her iPod on the McAuliffe play ground.

That night she didn’t return home when she normally does, but Brownlee didn’t think too much of it. Brownlee thought the 15-year-old sophomore might have just lost track of time and, being a weekend, he wasn’t worried.

But he couldn’t convince her twin of that. Jordan felt something was wrong.

He jumped on his bike and started looking for his sister. When he got to the school, he saw the emergency vehicles, but not Eden.

“I rode my bike home as fast as I could,” he said. “I told my dad I didn’t see her, but it didn’t make any sense because there was an ambulance, a fire truck and three police cars, but only one vehicle.”

Brownlee and Jordan were headed for the accident when they met the police in their front yard.

When Brownlee got to the hospital, he could hear her crying in pain. Fixing boo boos was something Brownlee had perfected since losing his wife to cancer seven years earlier.

“It was very hard to hear her in so much agony and not be able to go into her room and fix it,” he said.

Doctors fixed her, and she is now recovering at home, with the living room being converted to a bedroom since her’s is on the second floor.

A nine-hour surgery left her with numerous pins and plates and a pelvic fixator. She will not be able to walk again until mid December, and then will take months of therapy. She faces reconstructive surgery on her knee, but if everything goes as it should, Eden should be running by next fall.

“When I woke up, I didn’t know what happened,” said Eden, who runs on the University High cross-country team. “But I had a lot of pain in my leg. One of the questions I kept asking was if I would be OK to run by Friday. When you are used to running 20 to 25 miles a week, and now you can’t even walk … sometimes I get really emotional. But I’m getting used to it.”

First, Eden has to get back to school. Doctors won’t let her back until her stitches are removed, so a private tutor is helping her from home. Brownlee, who gave a well-paying job when his wife died to be able to be with his children, which includes another set of twins, 14, and a 12-year-old, is getting help from his mother.

“It’s hard when you’re used to not having to need help,” Eden said. “It really bugs me that I do.”

But despite the unknown medical costs that may come down the road depending on what Sweigard’s insurance pays, Brownlee said he is just thankful to have his children and his extended family from the Northern Colorado Cowboy Church to keep him focused.

“We are blessed to have her with us still,” he said. “I look at all her damages, and I know the Lord had His hand in it.”

Sherrie Peif covers education for The Tribune. If you have an idea for a feature, contact Sherrie at (970) 392-5632, by email at speif@greeleytribune.com. Follow her on twitter @sherriepeif.